Seller Club Podcast
Seller Club Podcast
Episode 82: Know Thy Sell Through
Why does your sell through matter when you're sourcing, when you're evaluating the health of your store, and what kinds of decisions can this powerful knowledge help you with? We take a closer look at this whole idea of sell-through and how it works for us in our businesses. As always, we encourage you to do the same!
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Hey everybody, welcome to episode 82 of the Southern Club podcast. Let's just go ahead and drop that beat. Hey guys.
SPEAKER_01:Kenny. Hey, hey, hey.
SPEAKER_00:Welcome back to the clubhouse.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, we're back. I know when um when this podcast comes out, though this episode is gonna be what? Mid-June? I know we're a little early, but this month has been uh a little slower.
SPEAKER_00:Can't be because of that.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my gosh, I knew this was this conversation was. I knew this day would come. Why why? Why, right? Why having a summer surge, you guys?
SPEAKER_00:What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_01:Oh my gosh. Well, Anna's having a surge. Oh, Anna's having a surge. Okay, I like that.
SPEAKER_00:I will say I was as of last time we talked, but I will say the first week of June, I can at least speak to the first week of June, was notably slower than the last week of May. So will that trend persist beyond the first week? I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:I'm sad to announce I'm down 4.5% in the last 31 days.
SPEAKER_00:You know what I did though? I I've had my store, which this is low for me. I used to have a much higher um ad rate for like a blanket across my store. I've had it at 5% for like most, I think this whole year. Um, and I kicked it up to six percent. So we'll see if that makes a notable difference in the world. Yeah, but I mean the margin is good. I'm also doing less uh percent off sale amount than I normally do. So like my margin is still great. So I'm like, let's just see what 1% bump will actually do.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I think it's summer because I'm selling a hundred twenty dollar triple white Brooks in user account. I'm just I'm just joking. User account offered me 35.
SPEAKER_00:35 for 120. So it's low ball summer, apparently.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and you know what I would have done if this was posh? You know what I would have done if this was posh? Laugh. No, I would accept it. Oh make them feel like they're getting it until the last minute and cancel it. Now we're just getting petty. So only on Posh now, only on Posh. Well, speaking of Posh, they're in a hot seat right now.
SPEAKER_00:They sure are still.
SPEAKER_03:Still, a lot of sellers are really getting mad at them. People getting suspended, right? So this is I guess the overarching scenario. They're telling Poshmark sellers to not bulk deal list.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Even things that are no longer available because they've sold on another platform.
SPEAKER_03:So let's say, like Glenn, like you're a cross-lister, right? And then you sold a obviously you sell a lot more on eBay. So if you're doing uh let's say a weekly takedown of listings, then obviously you're gonna, you know, take down 50 sales or 100 sales at a time, and posh would suspend you, bro.
SPEAKER_04:What yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So they they literally want you to just be focused on them. Only Posh cross list.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But it's that is incentivizing all kinds of backfiring nonsense.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, now it's it's now it's bad, right?
SPEAKER_00:It's gonna be good for their buyers.
SPEAKER_03:So yeah, so what I'm doing is I'm not taking listings down, and then when they sell them posh, I just cancel if I don't have it.
unknown:Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:Like, what can I do? I can't take it.
SPEAKER_00:I was like, these close to cross-listing to their again. And then all the things.
SPEAKER_03:And the crazy part is multiple people I've seen and I've heard they they um they contact Posh, they email Posh, right? About the suspension. And then Posh responds with uh, oh, I'm sorry, that was an error on our that was that wasn't supposed to be like maybe policy is an error. Like literally telling them, like, oh, we sent you that email in on accident, AI and you're reinstated. Yeah. That they probably using AI or something like that, like a really cheap model AI or something like that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, like they're taking off all these listings, just get rid of them now. Yeah, yeah. Get rid of the seller. Yeah, so so AI is taking you down.
SPEAKER_03:That is so there's that.
SPEAKER_01:That's why is that your game plan though? Like you're just gonna list or leave all of them on there?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. Because I'm still like, I think I think overall, like I've I've sold like close to 3,000 emposts since we started cross-listing. Okay. So it's still, you know, a pretty good snack. Yeah.
unknown:Snack.
SPEAKER_03:Snacks for the summer or groceries.
SPEAKER_00:Speaking of petty, I definitely woke up petty the other day because the first thing I saw when I looked at my phone after I woke up that day was somebody on eBay, another eBay user, commenting on this like little, it was like a lapel pin, right? And the color of the metal is like pewter colored, right? So in the title, it says pewter tone. And this person was going off on me about how there's no way this thing is made of pewter, blah, blah, blah. And also, by the way, man, your price is high. And this is a sub-20 item for man.
SPEAKER_01:I can't remember exactly how much it is. For the seller? Because these prices are high. Did tariffs kick in for this seller? I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00:But they had sent me this message at like one in the morning, and I was just like, oh my. Okay. So I I was like being funny on Instagram and like typed out like a snarky response and put it in my story. Like, don't you sometimes just want to like say this back to someone who's just reaching out to criticize you and for with absolutely no intention of even buying your item? Like, why are we even looking at it? You know? But anyway, and of course they didn't send that message. I sent a much more diplomatic message. And then they proceeded to message me back again with like a huge paragraph telling me how I should do my listings on eBay better and wishing me luck in like selling things on eBay and hoping that I would be successful in the future. And I just, and but it was like really like condescending, like the entire thing. Yes, it was a huge paragraph. And so I I did respond to that one and I said, uh, well, once again, no thank you for this completely unsolicited advice blocked. And I blocked them because I'm like, literally, why are you in my inbox right now?
SPEAKER_04:Why what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00:You clearly are not actually trying to help me. You're just like, I don't know, exercising some kind of rage that you have towards someone else at me. So I was like, I don't need that that in my life, but I just thought it was funny. And I wonder if people ever because here's the thing like, even the thing they were complaining about besides the price, like my title said, it was pewter tone. I'm like, do I need to explain to you what the word tone means? Like, that's why it says tone, because it's a color anyway. I get that a lot though with gold and silver. Like, you have to be careful with jewelry to not state that, like, not imply that it's made of that unless it is, right? Got it. But that's why I use words like color or tone, or anyway, it's just like super obnoxious, but very petty, very petty. And I just like would encourage anybody who's ever been inclined to do that type of thing to another seller, just don't do it. It's pointless.
SPEAKER_03:No, do it.
SPEAKER_00:Do it to Ken.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, do it to all. I don't need that in my life. I don't need that too. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:I'm like, I don't want to see this. Um go by.
SPEAKER_01:I wait, you said this from another seller or from a book?
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Another seller?
SPEAKER_00:Well, it was just like how does someone have that time? Because then they were telling me about how, you know, trying to school me basically on and I was like, have you even looked at my store? Like, not I didn't go into that or anything, I didn't say anything, but I'm just like, if you're gonna like be that condescending, at least know who you're talking to. Like, how many thousands of items have I sold on eBay over the last eight years? Like, you think I'm not successful? Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01:Like, and you're like, just go ahead and Google me. Yeah, Google me. I thought you were just gonna send a link to your book.
SPEAKER_00:Just go ahead and link to my book or my multiple filmed eBay presentations about oh man. Google's a presentation.
SPEAKER_01:Wait, can we do can we do that?
SPEAKER_00:You can do links. We can't well, you can send a URL, but it won't be clickable.
SPEAKER_03:Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I'm not sending them off like anything. Put it this way.
SPEAKER_03:I would do that. I would do that, but I wouldn't put my face.
SPEAKER_00:I would I would use and oh yeah, just link to my presentation. You just send people to my book, that's fine too.
SPEAKER_03:I I actually get like I I'm petty like that that I would go through that route, but also like I know that they're like crazy people. Yeah. Yes, you know, like that's why I blocked them because I'm like, no, that's why like that's why that when I changed my store name to the Hustle Bee, I think I'm trying to backpedal sometimes when I'm trying to be mean. Well, I guess that's preventing me from trying to be mean and petty.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's why that's why Glenn's name is nobody knows.
SPEAKER_03:Nobody knows his like sports extreme swear or something like that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I knew people I knew there's crazy people out there when I created the channel. That's when I first heard that there's crazy people.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that was that's that's yeah. We I've gotten emails, and that was and I think that was just Glenn's hater, and it's like, no, Glenn's too nice to hate on, and they just jump to me and just jump to me, and just and and and they would come in on our live shows, remember those on like Wednesday nights, and they would just like I'm like, man, negativity, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's wild. It's wild. Like, if you're having a slow summer, don't take it out on other people.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause that could that, yeah, that that yeah, that it is like the kind of like the perfect ingredients, you know, of like hot dude. We have like crazy cicadas here. Do you know what they are?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's like round two of the cicadas.
SPEAKER_03:Glenn, do you know what they are?
SPEAKER_00:Cicadas upright.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, he doesn't know. He doesn't know. I don't know. You have to Google that. Yeah. If you're not I don't even know how to spell that. Um I didn't even know. I see. Okay, okay. Google it, Glenn. Google it, Glenn.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, there we go. That's like one of the first ones coming up. So their lifespan is two to 17 years. Yeah, they are true bugs. What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00:Rather than I'm gonna be able to do it, they're like they're not fake.
SPEAKER_03:They're like alien. Oh man. They're like alien, and they're like uh size of your thumb. Like they're like and they're crunchy, and they're like chunky.
SPEAKER_01:You know what it says here. Um click this link to see when they are in Ohio and when they go away.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Please uh let us know if you're listening to this and you also don't know what a cicada is.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, apparently they that never occurred to me. Anna, they borrow, right? They borrow under the ground.
SPEAKER_00:The ground and then like cohorts of them come up out of the ground like every few years, and when they overlap, then there's like tons and tons of them over there.
SPEAKER_03:And then they just die. Yeah, and then there's like time of the the month, Glenn, that they all die. So there's like cr like crunchy dead bugs, like you think it's like mulch, it but it's like cicatoes.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, here it says that they leave behind a huge mess. Yeah, to be nice.
SPEAKER_03:So when I was when I was like cleaning our yard, bro, these things, oh every little land, they landed in my neck. That's terrible. And in even if you shake, they're latched, like they have claws, they have little claws that attach, and then you actually literally have to like smack it before they would leave.
SPEAKER_00:And they buzz very loud.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Can they hurt you?
SPEAKER_03:No, no, they can hurt you, but it's just like e like eek, you know, like yeah, they look nasty though.
SPEAKER_01:They look mean. And they're loud.
SPEAKER_03:Like, that's all you we hear all day, Glenn. Like, like, you know how like crickets at night? Yeah, times 1000 all day. Oh man. Yeah. And uh, and they're like suicide squad on the highway. Because they just smack your windshield. What?
SPEAKER_00:Like every day remind me to stay out of Ohio right now.
SPEAKER_03:No, for real. In Ohio, every day when I when I go to the gym, 15-minute drive, at least 10 bucks smack my windshield. Oh, and splatter. Oh, like it's crazy because like JC would duck because you could see it. Like, it's like uh like a golf ball, like black golf ball straight heading straight to you, and it would just splatter on your windshield.
SPEAKER_01:That's crazy.
SPEAKER_03:So, yeah, if you feel down, they're actually insects and bugs that that's their purpose.
SPEAKER_00:So don't feel too bad. Apparently, had really bad cicada situation pre like like recently.
SPEAKER_04:Before you move?
SPEAKER_00:No, it was like it was within the last year.
SPEAKER_03:Where were you?
SPEAKER_00:Well, that's what I'm saying. Like, I we didn't really see them here. Like they were generally in this region, but not like in my okay, not down the yeah. But they were like all around, so I think we just locked out.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I don't know if Ohio didn't have a giant uprising. I don't think Ohio maybe Ohio has it the worst because there's videos like within our community glen that a whole like tree is wrapped with cicadas. So gross. It's terrible.
SPEAKER_00:So uh I will say as a farm kid, I used to collect their little exoskeletons. They molt and like leave their exoskeletons around. I would just collect them and like hang them on my clothes, like yeah, they're like uh they're like crabs, right?
SPEAKER_03:They like they come out of their self. Yeah, they mold but I'm but I I kept telling JC though, man, the birds, they're eating good.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Whoever eats those, it's how we're gonna do it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, they're thriving. Like, yeah. I can't even use our back tack Anna because there's just hundreds of them there.
SPEAKER_00:But stay inside.
SPEAKER_03:Exactly. That's why we're just recording podcasts, or else I'd be outside.
SPEAKER_00:So maybe we should go ahead and talk about a topic.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah, yeah. We had a topic today.
SPEAKER_00:We've been catching up a lot on a lot of things.
SPEAKER_01:And this is, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:This is a garden variety kind of episode anyway, but um, you know, I think there's kind of a larger topic at hand. We want to drill down into something specific, but the larger topic is kind of like predictability in your business and like how do you try to we we all you know try to find that, whether it's about sourcing or about selling or about you know our process. There's like all kinds of ways that we like try to have predictability because then you can like plan, you can estimate, you can project, you can grow, right? You you kind of need a like diversify, right?
SPEAKER_03:We hear the word diversify your products.
SPEAKER_00:Right. But like how do you know what's a good thing to try, or how do you know what to source more of, or whatever. So um, like one thing we were kind of talking about is sell through rate. And I would I think we should talk about kind of both sides of the coin, like sell-through rate as it pertains to sourcing and sell-through rate as it pertains to evaluating the performance of your own stuff. Yeah, that you already listed.
SPEAKER_03:So go ahead, Anna. So um you want me to define sell through rate real quick?
SPEAKER_00:I just kind of well, before that, I kind of want to get your take, both of your takes, on just like this idea of predictability. Like, because it's I mean, captain consistency over here, predictability because hand in hand, right? And we all we all like some kind of certainty.
SPEAKER_03:But the certainty I like is not knowing.
SPEAKER_00:I don't think that's true.
SPEAKER_03:I don't think that's true.
unknown:What?
SPEAKER_03:I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:I mean if that were true, you would not be not buying Adidas.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I I still bought them.
SPEAKER_00:They're still reluctantly. But like what do you guys do you expect a lot of sort of uh predictability, I mean, in your business, or do you feel like there's kind of like there's uh this is as good as it gets because things are always changing? Like how do you think that's it?
SPEAKER_03:I'm gonna answer mine. I'm gonna answer it. Okay. Um I have come to accept that Q4 is party time and Q5 quote unquote is also Q1. Q4 and Q1 has always surprised me. I guess that's the word because it's just so much more compared to the other quarters. And and that in turn kind of like preps me or actually lets me know that okay, energy-wise, you're gonna be really like tired already, but you need to recover energy-wise and inventory-wise in Q2 and Q3. And it just so happened that Q2 and Q3 is based on like just the last years, eight years of selling, it's always been the slowest. So we've kind of like talked about like what are the ways that we can prop it up, but also to we cannot discount the big factor that people are going on vacation, that's a high spend activity, and I am on a high spend category.
SPEAKER_00:So it's more of a direct competition.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, for the I'm like, you know, like are you are you are you buying uh a sneaker or are you buying a plane ticket?
SPEAKER_00:Well, interesting side note here. I don't know if you saw this, but eBay has recently announced partnering with Klarna.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:That's like paying for or financing options, and part of the whole impetus of that is to like basically make bigger purchases more accessible to people.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But I'm really wondering, like, I I think that's kind of been rolling out slowly. I don't know if I've even seen anything about it. I've seen I've seen sales with that.
SPEAKER_03:I've I I don't know. Or do you wouldn't know?
SPEAKER_00:You wouldn't know.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you wouldn't know, but I've seen the listings. Um right now, um, I think it was uh the code was Klarna or Klarna Us or Klarna on Us. There's like a code because I was looking at a$600 um part, uh car part, and they gave me f it would give me$50 off if I use Klarna.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, interesting.
SPEAKER_03:So so they're definitely pushing uh something there. Yeah. And obviously, like, you know,$50 is significant, but I've seen it on other items that's kind of kind of like clothing. It's only giving me like five bucks.
SPEAKER_00:I'm not sure uh if this is in the US yet or not, or if this yeah, but I know it's happened at least to some extent in on in some eBay markets where if you buy something with Klarna and you want to resell it, it will automatically create the listing for you.
SPEAKER_04:Oh that's it.
SPEAKER_00:Isn't that interesting? It's supposed to like promote circular economy and stuff. But yeah, I wonder that though, be like, does that make you guys consider differently like the amount of like high-end inventory you're willing to have in your store? Because do you think people will buy it more if it's yeah, I would agree so on my end.
SPEAKER_03:We've definitely intentionally lowered lowered the ASP because of where the economy is. Yeah, and also like to kind of like weather out the summer slowdown. But I'm gonna give the the what yeah, Kenny. Come on. The myth, the myth, and uh the lie, you know, the lie that people have said on YouTube's, you know what I'm saying? Right, it's on YouTube's just so yeah, I'm gonna hand it to the to the real YouTuber here and see what he says about um his predictability because these Mr. Captain consistency.
SPEAKER_00:And then let's totally like zero in on Cell Through because that's a really interesting one.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I mean, uh yeah, I've been doing the same consistent type of items over and over again. I think the only thing that got I got kind of caught was with uh like Mother's Day coming around that I did see like lower numbers like before and after. Mother's Day? Yeah, because my stuff has like nothing to do with Mother's Day stuff. I think a lot of people were spending money on gifts, and like it just wasn't really anything going on that that weekend in my store. That is interesting.
SPEAKER_03:I might have sold a lot of uh women's running shoes.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you probably did, you know, because I think that a lot of- I didn't notice any difference, but that's because my inventory's all over the place. It's hard to see patterns like that when it's like debris, miscellaneous, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:That's right, my favorite word. Oh, yeah, that that had to be Glen Huh, because you're all like men's jersey and lake though, unless the mom is really into the sport. That's yeah, I'm not gonna.
SPEAKER_00:You need more like bedazzled jerseys.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, they uh they they'd rather get a spa instead of a jersey. Yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_00:I'm sure some moms wouldn't, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But I'm hoping that it kind of picks up a little bit for getting you know to Father's Day type of stuff. Right.
SPEAKER_00:Father's Day, and I would imagine like Captain sports act sports like championships and stuff, you probably have way more sales than people selling the bad thing, and this is a really bad finals.
SPEAKER_01:Um lower market teams.
SPEAKER_03:Nobody predicted they were gonna make it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, like there's no star power on these teams. So it's that's also the bad part when it comes to that.
SPEAKER_03:It's like it's like college basketball. Yeah, it's you know, like the players, the quant uh the quality of players are just a bunch of role players.
SPEAKER_01:That should just go up to random people and be like, can you name like two players on the pacers, please?
SPEAKER_03:Who uh Tyrese and Caitlin Clark.
unknown:Caitlin Clark.
SPEAKER_01:Uh good enough. I'll take it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, just for you know what, that's close enough. We'll go with that.
SPEAKER_01:Uh so I think on the um the whatnot side with it being more like entertainment type of stuff, I think it's because like people that still have their jobs, office jobs, and aren't taking vacations, you're just seen as like a regular scheduled program. So they're gonna be there. Um and so those sales were fine, but so you haven't seen the drop of viewership. No, right. But the eBay side, I definitely saw some lower days in there.
SPEAKER_03:So yeah, that is uh that is interesting. Uh you so so I'm you're saying eBay buyers take vacation. Yeah. Why not buyers? No, they don't.
SPEAKER_00:Well, in the spirit of predictability, though, is that like is that something you recall seeing year over year? Like Mother's Day is slower for you, or is that have you just not noticed before?
SPEAKER_01:I've definitely noticed when there's like different holidays coming around, either it's gonna help you or you're not gonna really see like 4th of July, people spend so much money on fireworks, yeah, yeah, that a lot of the times they're not buying extra like stuff. It's crazy. I've seen people drop five, six hundred plus on fireworks easy.
SPEAKER_00:Do you sell fireworks?
SPEAKER_03:I don't, but I should. No, and um, and also too, like, for example, like in fashion, right? Unless they're like that unk that prepares two weeks before for the July grilling, they're not gonna buy from us before the the event, you know? Yeah, more likely they're they'd rather walk into a store and get it then and rock it the next day. So I think that kind of like excludes us for like very specific. Um I know for a fact uh Valentine's Day, like we we do dip big because you know, it's flowers and it's dinners. It's so we're competing against that.
SPEAKER_01:It's kind of like people say how like during the holidays they see kind of like a decline somewhat of like pre-owned, yeah. I guess compared to brand new. More than likely you're gonna give a brand new item as a gift compared to like a pre-owned right.
SPEAKER_00:It's like probably those are gifts, right?
SPEAKER_01:Like all the new with tags. So there's some different factors there, but um, yep, it's kind of like where I'm at right now. Um, but I think you have a good a good topic for today, so yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So so let's get into that a little bit. So maybe we'll just go in order of sourcing and then selling. But what do you guys use? The idea of like a sell-through rate for when you're sourcing, like how do you use that metric? Where do you find it? Do you care about it at all? What does it tell you? Like, how does it inform your decisions? Um being a miscellaneous seller, I'll just go first really quick. Um, I will sometimes look um really at a ballpark idea of like, I want to know basically, okay, here's an item I just found. Or actually, lately this happens more often than not when I'm researching something that's in like an online bidding type of estate auction. So let's say I find this really cool, like specific brand of a like bomber jacket from the 50s, and I'm like, oh, cool, nobody else in my like rural area is gonna care about this, but it might be a really cool, actually vintage like leather fashion piece, right? So I'm gonna go and try to research this jacket. Hopefully there's something exactly like it that's the same brand and the same color and everything for comps, but you know, I also kind of want to know in general, is like the aesthetic of this jacket something that is like selling through, right? So I might look at kind of keywords, obviously like leather bomber jacket, or maybe a certain era or certain like style kind of word. Um, and what I want to know when I'm looking through that that relates to sell through is how many of these are currently listed, how many of these have sold, you know, within the last 30 days, 90 days, and um, what's the average sale price or what's the range of price of sale prices too? Because sometimes it's like, oh, this one is, you know, from 1950, new with the tags. So it's gonna sell for a lot more than one that has like a rip in the arm or something, right? And so I want to look at like those those factors. So I don't ever like calculate an actual sell-through rate, but I want to get an idea of like, is this something people are searching for even? Is this a popular type of item? Are you know, and have they sold for like a decent amount of money? Because that is directly going to impact, like maybe I am still willing to like wait a little while for it to sell if it's like a very specialized item, but that's definitely gonna impact what's my highest bid gonna be on this item. Like, I'm not gonna pay for it in an auction what I can sell it for, and that's it. Like that's just breaking even or losing money, right? So I need to know how many times can I um make my money over, right? But also, like, is anyone even going to look for this? And kind of what's the right now heartbeat of like this item selling through? So that's that's what I'm looking at. But in other ways with my store, like when I want to evaluate the performance of my store, I do actually calculate a couple of different sell-through rates that are like an actual number that I'm like looking month over month. How is this number changing? But when it comes to sourcing, it's really more of a ballpark thing for me. So, how does that work for you guys? Because you know, we we do source different kinds of items, and like I would imagine that for something that is new with tags with a model number or something like that, or like a certain team exact, you know, this exact version of something, it might be a little different.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think when I was sourcing like in store a lot more um compared to now, I was definitely doing and pretty much what I had shown in the videos of like licking them up by style code, checking comps, seeing what's going on there, how many have sold, what are those price ranges look like. And um now with the way that I'm sourcing, I really don't check comps. Um, I think it just comes down, I guess because more bulk has been coming in. I think a lot of it comes down to like my buy cost and how many like per per unit and things like that that are coming in. Um so that's definitely changed. And one of the funny things is is that like you could search up this item and there's like no solds, and then you can check how many are listed and there's none, and then you do list it. And then it's gone right away because you're the only competition, or sometimes those items are like so unique that there is no one else selling it. So here you go, like you're the main one, and someone's actually looking for it. You know, that's the only reason why there's no sold. So it is kind of interesting, though, doing the research, like what kind of I don't know, choice you make, you know, when you are sourcing out there.
SPEAKER_00:Right. Because, like, as we've discussed many other times, like a dollar that you spend on this thing is not available for you to spend on the next thing. So, like, it is important to have some kind of something that's informing your sourcing. Not that you have to like crunch numbers constantly to like make good sourcing decisions, but I do think sell through is really overlooked. I mean, I know for me, even looking at like a ballpark idea of sell through was not really something I took seriously until years into selling on eBay. And it definitely now makes me say no to a lot more stuff than I used to. And I'm glad because it's more focused that way. Still miscellaneous, but just more focused sourcing practices in in general. Um, what about you, Ken?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I think um I totally agree on what you said about the becoming a better buyer and sourcing when you start considering the sell-through of your own store because you know, like most of us actually work with a limited capital. Right. So if you put your money, you know, if I look at it as an investment, right? If you're putting your ten dollars on an item that's not gonna sell for twenty in a year, yeah, what if you just put your ten dollars on something that you're gonna make five dollars, but you're gonna be able to do it three times this year?
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_03:You know, I think that has to be way I think when you're starting, right? Like yes, I I we've always said explore a lot of categories, but over time you you start getting a preference or j during even seasonality of it, right? Um if if you're into like retail arb, a lot of the winter are cheaper during summer, and a lot of summer stuff are cheaper during the winter. So if you only buy during summer, you're gonna be so loaded with winter stuff for cheap. And if you don't buy during winter, then the following year you're gonna have a bunch of goose eggs. Because now you know you're loaded with a lot of winter stuff during summer.
SPEAKER_00:And then when they hatch, you'll just have so many geese, you'll be overrun. Yeah, don't do it. So so I think unless you have too many cicadas, then maybe they could eat all the cicadas anyway. Let's leave that right there.
SPEAKER_03:That is the uh the one thing that we are trying to look for now, especially with the how heavy you are on certain seasonality, uh, because besides the category, there is seasonality too. And one of the things that we've learned over time is that you uh you cannot really be at a hundred percent kind of like best store all year. I feel like you have to kind of like learn to like okay, identify like I said earlier, Q1 and Q4 is always the highest. So getting after I mean after Q1, you start to evaluate your store. Okay, uh let's use round numbers, right? I have a hundred thousand listed in my store. In the last 30 days, I sold 50,000. You know, and you just in the peak of the season. So you're thinking, like, man, like half of my inventory, I mean, you know, I sold half of my inventory, or let's just say during Q4, right? The whole quarter I sold half. You're really thinking that man, like, whatever my style was, was peak Q4. Now, can I replicate it again on Q4? More likely you can, because you know, like that's kind of like your like Glenn said, like, brand new items, even shoes with box do way better with them without box. Yeah, and then but the the kicker here is when it's going to Q2 and Q3, what are you doing to kind of like alleviate that downtrend or relax the contract and expand? And one of the things that we've tried this year is load up in a lot of summerware. I'd be curious to see after Q3 if it was worth all the hassles listing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean that's a good question.
SPEAKER_03:Like clothing, right?
SPEAKER_00:Was it worth it? Or do you just kind of accept the downtrend more and just double down on the street?
SPEAKER_03:But one of the things that I'm for sure that's happening that's really working well, is with clothing, at least uh probably the last year of sourcing we've done with clothing, our ROI is way higher compared to the sneakers that we've bought.
SPEAKER_00:Interesting.
SPEAKER_03:So that alone gives me the kind of like because I mentioned this comment to sneakers NV one time, and I said, Man, I should have gone harder on clothing. Because when you can buy a clothing for five bucks and sell it for 25, and if you could consistently sell 10 to 20 every day, I'm like, you're cooking, you know, like that's a$15,000 month just on clothing. And and and I'm not even a clothing seller really yet, but eventually, like that's one thing because also, too, uh what meant what I mentioned earlier is like we're working with limited capital. It's so much easier to spend five bucks than to spend fifty bucks on on one item.
SPEAKER_00:Welcome to my world, Ken.
SPEAKER_03:So so that is uh that is uh or maybe.
SPEAKER_00:Glenn, you gotta smile louder when I say funny things. I can't hear you.
SPEAKER_03:I see you smiling. I know, but but but but Glenn's not totally agreeing because the shoes that we have are actually the ones driving traffic to buy the shorts. Yes, see, it's always very well.
SPEAKER_00:I was just lamenting about spending more than five dollars on an item, which was really hard for me at first.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, that is so true. So it's true, but yeah, but I think uh that's kind of like my take on that. And I do like Glenn's idea too with life selling with entertainment. I don't think it matters as long as you you know your average, you know, sale ASP per show. You know, the quote unquote the famous saying for the people that actually do their numbers, it would all even out. It would all even out. It would all even out. What do you mean all even out? I mean the the profit or the loss. Am I doing all this to break even?
SPEAKER_00:Maybe you don't want to find that out at all.
SPEAKER_03:There were times me and Glenn would get on a call after our shows when we did live back to back. We'd be like, we're looking at each other like, oh, this is bad. Like, you know, they were like a show and I made 200 bucks on. I sold, you know, I sold 10,000 items,$10,000. I made 200 bucks. What about you, man? I was like, oh, it's a terrible night. I was like, oh, let's do it again tomorrow.
unknown:Let's do it again.
SPEAKER_00:Try and try again.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. And then you always say, even oh, even that.
SPEAKER_01:I think the I think the hardest part about like the whatnot side is just having like so many items and wondering, like, you know, if I listed all of these, how long would this take me? One by one.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, it would take forever.
SPEAKER_01:Like, you know, could I even get to that point? How many people you'd even have to hire, you know, to get to that? Because you can't do that alone. There's just no way. Like, this is like thousands of items. Yeah. And you know, the sell-through rate, which we were, you know, talking about before, how would that look like compared to you're used to moving 200 hats, you know, every two to three days. That's not gonna happen on eBay unless you have man, how many listings would I need?
SPEAKER_00:At least now you're talking about your own cell through.
SPEAKER_01:I know. Now I'm talking about my own cell through.
SPEAKER_00:And you're gonna have to crank it way up because going by that percentage.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, to get like two, like 400 hats moving per week.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah, yeah. So let's do that. Let's do that. Like, okay, how many let's let's do an exercise for everybody that's listening. You know, go to your seller hub, click on your listings, and what what are we gonna do? Like monthly? We're gonna do monthly, right? Let's do monthly, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, monthly.
SPEAKER_03:So add your total, let's let's let's do value, right? For everybody that's listening. Add your total active listing and total active value, right? Okay. So everybody do this, get you a pen and paper, right? Or pull up your calculator. How about a calculator? Okay, we all I got my calculator out. Uh live or record it, right? I mean add your last 30 days.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
unknown:Right?
SPEAKER_01:So add listing value plus your last 30 days. Last 31 days, right? 31 days.
SPEAKER_03:Of solds or of solds, right? Equals that number, right? And then you divide that number with your last 31 days. That would be your sell through of your current inventory.
SPEAKER_01:So divide that by 31?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, your last 31 days. So you're listed and your last night, add your listed in your last 30 day one 31 day episode, divide by your last 31 days.
SPEAKER_04:Does this make sense?
SPEAKER_01:I don't know if this makes sense. Hmm? Does it make sense? Well, I don't know what I'm gonna see what Ken's number is. Okay. Let me do Okay, what kind of number are we supposed to have? Percentage.
SPEAKER_00:I think you said it backwards. I think it's Yeah, I don't have a percentage number. No, no, no. It's the it's the the small number divided by the big number.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Correct, crack, crack, crack. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00:So 31 divided by the opposite.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did the opposite. I I did the opposite. I did the opposite, right? I said it. Yeah. And then you move the decimal place to spaces.
SPEAKER_00:And that's your like mine is 4.2%. But the number that that comes out of my calculator is 0.042.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:No, yeah, there you go. I'm glad we got Anna here.
SPEAKER_00:I got you. Well, to be honest, I calculate this every month, and um I look at the value. I have one that's for value, and then one that's for like item count.
SPEAKER_03:Like how so mine, so mine's 7.6%.
SPEAKER_00:Nice.
SPEAKER_03:That's low. So, so Glenn, yeah. So, so what's your your Okay, I'm just gonna tell you, I'm just gonna tell you. Tell me your number. What's what's your 31 days?
SPEAKER_01:What's your last 31 days is 19,331.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. What's your active listing?
SPEAKER_01:Uh active listing value is loading. 108,300.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:You got it, Anna?
SPEAKER_00:So yeah. Hang on.
SPEAKER_03:So it's a total is.
SPEAKER_00:I'm looking. Sorry, I took a screenshot so I didn't forget the other number. Okay, yeah. So you're wow, dang. 15%.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01:What?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Get out of here.
SPEAKER_01:Hmm. I wonder why I So that's probably why I need to catch up on listing then.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Selling everything out and run to yourself.
SPEAKER_01:It feels like I'm just kind of like doing like a little hamster wheel at times.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that that's what's happening. Yeah. Wait, hey, if your sell through beats Glenn, let us know. 15%, right? 15%, right? That's what you got, right? 15.1, yeah. Yeah. Which is I've always so I've always said if you have a 10% show through, you turn your store around every 10 months.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_03:So so if if you don't change anything, then you just replenish, you're gonna make your listed value, your income every 10 months. If you had a 10% sell through.
SPEAKER_00:But since you have a-demorse 7 months, yeah, yeah, a little bit less than seven months.
SPEAKER_03:Your total value will be your in your your g revenue every seven months. That's kind of funny though, because it kind of makes sense.
SPEAKER_01:No, I think it does make sense though, because my numbers have been the same the last three months. Like nothing has changed though, because I only have been replenishing, though. But the last time we talked, you're like, well, try to add 300 jerseys in the next month. So would you say that?
SPEAKER_04:And you're like, no, I'm like, I'll try to try.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, but then then I would see uh yeah, it would increase, usually it increases after 30 to 90 days because you gotta go through the whole cycle again of your sell-through. Yeah, um, I would say I've always had a store that had a 10% uh turnover. Um, again, I'm at 7.6 because also I'm down 15% for the month.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:So so also if you want to do the exercise too, you could do quarterly. So what we could do is quarterly is a lot more quote unquote stable.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Because your quarterly is more room for it to average out.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, there's you know, like the saying, it would all even out. So let's do uh let's do our 90 days.
SPEAKER_00:Right now.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. I just want to see like how it was because I think I still have like a good tail end. And Glenn's probably would be consistent if he does it. I'd be curious to see. Maybe um, okay, let's see.
SPEAKER_01:Alright, so we're adding 90 days plus current value. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Yep. And then you get that total.
SPEAKER_01:And then 31 divided by that total. Oh no, 90.
SPEAKER_03:You divide yeah, you divide that total, you divide 90 your 90 days with that total.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So 90 divided by this.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, your 90 day divided by this. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Little number over the big number, guys.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, to get the percentage. Yeah, mine is twenty-two point nine percent. This is right, this is what I get. No no no. Your your 90 day number. What's your ninety-day number? You put that on the 90. Instead of putting 90, but put your a whole n what's your 90 days total?
SPEAKER_01:58,000.
SPEAKER_03:So put it 58,000 divided by the the big number. Yeah, it w it should look like this. Yeah. So you're at 35%.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:So through quite over 90 days, right? So every what, Anna, every nine months, Glenn turns over his his whole store. How how what was yours, Anna?
SPEAKER_00:I didn't do mine.
SPEAKER_03:Oh.
SPEAKER_00:I was helping you guys.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I need help.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I will say that.
SPEAKER_01:Anna's the smart one.
SPEAKER_00:No, no, no. I I track this in my in my spreadsheet.
SPEAKER_03:You have a regular spreadsheet. Yeah, I was like, Do you do it monthly usually?
SPEAKER_00:Mm-hmm. Yeah, so the last, so I can actually just look at it. Maybe I'll do that. The um thing that I have noticed this year is that month over month it has steadily gone up, which is great. So mine, like for Q1, mine was more like like almost 10%.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And this quarter it is almost 12%.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so that is a good indicator, like thinking about sell-through of our own store. You just multiply it, but well, basically just get to 100, and that's how much you would make this year, right? Like, so if Glenn. Yeah, that whole amount of listed value. If you're replenishing equal or better quality of it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's that's the hardest part to do because you're yeah. Yeah, you sell a$200 jersey and then you're replacing it with$30 shorts.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's not but if you're replacing it, if you're looking at listed value and you're replacing it with six or seven pairs of thirty dollar shorts, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So yes, yeah. Then it's okay. That's why the challenge is you have to list at least what you sold to keep the the train going. Yeah, yeah, value-wise, yeah, value-wise. You have to. And again, in the back of your head, think quality too, right? Because like a j a self-through on a jersey is not equal to a self-through on a hat.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, or shorts, even though shorts, you know.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Yeah, so so like that's that's where the mix of inventory comes into play. And I wish eBay had that in a dashboard of your uh mix of category percentage. That would be interesting to see.
SPEAKER_00:Do you have your sales or your listings?
SPEAKER_03:Your listings. I think our sales show.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think so.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Um, I think the sales show on our performance. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Interesting. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know if we have that anywhere. Or if we do, I haven't looked at it.
SPEAKER_03:So my sales by category right now, currently, athletic shoes 41%. Um women's shoes athletic 19.6%. My clothing shorts is actually 6% only. And then some are listed as activewear shorts. So basically on my shorts, I have 10%.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And then the rest are like really minor jackets, you know, leggings, and stuff like that. So so you could you could look at your uh variety of what you've been selling. If you click your performance, go to sales and sales by category. So technically, I'm still a men's athletic shoe seller because that's what the most I sell. Now, if you do that with your inventory, it's like, wait, okay, so I'm selling up, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Does it line up, right?
SPEAKER_03:Because like next thing you know, I have 80% shorts and 40% are are shoes.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Now you're like your shorts are moving, your shoes are trash.
SPEAKER_00:I have to do this every once in a while. Like when we uh register for any like eBay virtual event and you have to choose what category you're in. That's always a hard question for me because it's either gonna be something with apparel or something with collectibles, and they're both like gonna be big umbrella, yeah, um, umbrella categories like that. But I always have to look like what which seller am I right now? Am I more like apparel or more collectibles? And it's it's interesting to look at that stuff every once in a while. But yeah, it would be nice to have more of a direct comparison to like what do you have listed and what's been selling.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that is uh yeah, because data. But I think that was a good exercise for all of us and for everybody that's listening. So if you're in a situation like Glenn and you feel like you can't really bust out of the monthly sales that you're doing.
SPEAKER_00:Because you're doing too well and you have a shelter rate of everyone's talking to at the moment.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Your self is really good, and that's the same thing. Like, put it example. If you're live selling, I have experiences when I was live selling and whatnot. Your sellter is close to 100%. So if you don't replenish, you don't make more money.
SPEAKER_01:If you sell all your inventory, if you start it at a dollar, you're definitely going 100% sell to ring.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Only if you have people attending your show.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, even at a dollar, someone's gonna bid at a dollar. Somebody, yeah, you're gonna lose bad if you have three people watching and you start it at a dollar.
SPEAKER_03:I'm just gonna keep I'll keep buying a dollar. Yeah, exactly. Um I'm notorious for hopping in stores and live shows that only have less ten less than ten people, and then I just buy everything.
SPEAKER_01:It's funny when the seller's like, I'm trusting you guys. Come on, if I run it at a dollar, guys, I'm trusting you. Don't do it, please don't.
SPEAKER_03:And then I always have like max bid$10.
unknown:Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_03:No, don't trust us. No, I've had so many hats. That's why I have so many hats because I used to go on a Glenn's show all the time and I pick up everything under 13 because I put 13 max bid and it sells. So it's the kenny sells the kidneys are like I have so many hats.
SPEAKER_00:So uh yeah, all the that's his secret.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, all the break-even of Glen's went to me.
SPEAKER_00:So, okay, maybe instead of a summer surge or a summer slowdown, we're gonna have a summer sell through, guys.
SPEAKER_03:Summer sell through. Summer sell through. Yeah, you know how you say know yourself. Know yourself through.
SPEAKER_01:Know yourself through.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's actually a good title, Anna. I saw you writing that down.
SPEAKER_00:Not me typing the title as we're recording, it's fine.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, know yourself. I think it's funny that well, the category, my category is 92% sportsman cards and fan shop. But football is the highest, 40%. Yeah, and it's not even in season.
SPEAKER_00:Interesting insight there.
SPEAKER_03:Also, that's because you probably have way more the most in the whole. Yeah, yeah. That's what that's what I'm saying. I wish eBay would would compare it to your actual current inventory. You know, I wish there was like a plus minus on the side, right? They they put percentage of sales and a percentage of inventory. Because it don't matter if you're selling a lot of football, what if you just have a thousand jerseys of football and then you only have a hundred basketball? So the you know, the variety, it's kind of like gonna be off, but um, but I guess we can find that out if we just navigate through our own store um and type we can type um basketball um and it would show you on your active listings, it will show you the total value of what you're carrying. Yeah, that'd be dope.
SPEAKER_00:But uh but I think we should still ask for a better, a better, like easier way to compare those. 100% be super helpful.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so eBay, if you're listening, we're gonna be on you. We're gonna be on you on those.
SPEAKER_00:And also, we appreciate you for sponsoring our show.
unknown:Thank you.
SPEAKER_03:Make sure you follow eBay for sellers and also sign ups for eBay open, the in-person event is open. And special announcement, seller club is gonna have a booth in the I don't even know what the place is called.
SPEAKER_00:Like the sponsor hall or whatever. The hall, right?
SPEAKER_03:The hall or the yeah, the expo hall.
SPEAKER_00:It's gonna be so fun, guys. We're gonna do a lot of really fun stuff at our booth. So please come see us.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and and also drop by. We might interview you on the podcast. We're gonna have a live podcast in there.
SPEAKER_01:There you go. We'll see. So maybe even Gives.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, we definitely have Gives. I'm I'm trying to see if we can do Gives every like meal, you know, because everybody's gonna put it for breakfast, for lunch.
SPEAKER_00:I have a really fun idea for that, which I will not disclose on the air yet.
SPEAKER_03:Oh not yet. Okay, yeah, yeah. And also make sure you follow our other sponsor, Seller Ledger, get your books right, try their software, no credit card required. And with that, we will see you in the next episode. Peace. See ya. Bye.